This month, the Dis-Chem foundation in partnership with Cape Talk, recognizes EduPeg, a community project running at Litha Primary School in Gugulethu.
For just over 20 years, EduPeg has been involved in literacy and numeracy projects at various primary schools in the Western Cape. Now, they are doing something a little different by helping Litha Primary School build a sustainable food garden with the help of the Urban Harvest Edible Gardens. This garden, once complete will produce 10kg of produce every day to help feed the 469 learners at the school.
There is still lots of work to go into the garden and the Dis-Chem Foundation has come onboard by giving EduPeg R80 000 to help them with this project. Currently, they need a fridge, an irrigation system and a container from where they will sell the produce to name but a few.

Today, in an interview on the afternoon drive on Cape Talk Edupeg Project Director, Liz Swensky, said they are delighted to have this assistance from the Dis-Chem Foundation. She said, “Such random acts of kindness are a way in which we can restore the dignity of this community. The gardening project has so many layers of education to it. Kids can take the skills they learn here and start their own gardens at home.”
Penny Stein from the Dis-Chem Foundation went to air with the following message, “We have our own food garden in Midrand, Johannesburg and we absolutely understand the needs and nutritional value of fresh produce and healthy food.”

Earlier this week, Litha Primary School Principal, Dr. Du Toit expressed his gratitude towards EduPeg. He explained that the learners come from poor households where the parents are usually young and the children are raised by their grandparents. Quite often, they don’t even have a school uniform. He said the school supplies a cooked meal every day to every child. The absentee rate at the school currently stands at 2% and this is attributed to this meal because for many, it is the only meal the child will have. He reiterated that the school is a safe haven for some of the children who don’t have anything to go home to.
Du Toit further explained; “the garden is an exceptional form of taking education outside the classroom.” He continued to draw parallels between the environment and real life, for instance how mathematics is used to calculate the area of the garden, science comes in through learning about photosynthesis and life skills are learnt when understanding the nutritional value of the produce grown in the garden.